Summary: This sermon is for the text Luke 4, the Temptation of Jesus, Lent I Jesus is tempted constantly to deny his mission. ((Matt. 1:21) The key is Luke's phrase: "until an opportune time" the same remains for us. some illustrations are from Leonard Sweet and

When I was a boy, I was told, "Baptists don't do Lent." No one knew why. I suspect that it was an anti-Catholic thing which I pray we are over. It was the old argument, "whatever they do, we don't!" - a curiously convoluted, twisted and unhealthy way to decide on religious practices. And what did we do on Ash Wednesday? We put ashes on our foreheads.

Whatever the reason for "not doing Lent," I think it is a great loss for any Christian not to prepare for Good Friday and Easter. Every spring the baseball players prepare for the season with spring training; every spring ordinary people prepare for summer by doing "spring cleaning." So why shouldn't Christians prepare for the most important events in Jesus' ministry - what he did for us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, what he did for us on Golgotha's cross and at the empty tomb?

After his baptism, Luke tells us, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.

Note that Jesus along with John the Baptist had just heard God’s voice from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him”. These are the same words the Disciples, Peter, James and John heard in the gospel reading last Sunday on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. And that’s when the Tempter came. That is so true to life. You go off to a church retreat. You have a spiritual mountaintop experience. You’re feeling closer to God and closer to others than you have ever felt before. Beware! That is the time when you may be the most vulnerable to temptation.

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. He was vulnerable. A physical need needed to be met. And so the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Friends, Satan knew very well who Jesus was. He had already tried to kill Jesus when he was an infant using the political power of an evil king.

The temptation was a reasonable response to Jesus’ hunger. He had power over nature. And stones were abundant there in the wilderness. He could use his extraordinary gifts to meet his physical needs. But Jesus knew that was not what he was sent to do. His gifts were to be used to do the work of his Father. He was to complete the promise of the angel to Mary and Joseph and the world. Do you remember: “you shall give him the name Jesus because he will save His people from their sins….. He will be “Emmanuel….” God with us. So Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

And that’s true. Many people today have their physical needs met but they are shriveling and dying on the inside. Physical needs have an urgency, but spiritual needs are every bit as critical. So many people are suffering from spiritual hunger… drifting here and there, trying other cleverly crafted by the human teachings that never satisfy. (Eph. 4:14)

This sermon is for the text Luke 4, the Temptation of Jesus, Lent I Jesus is tempted constantly to deny his mission. ((Matt. 1:21) The key is Luke's phrase: "until an opportune time" the same remains for us. some illustrations are from Leonard Sweet and

Add a note (optional)

This Folder is currently read-only, but you can still save items to your Favorites Folder. To access all of your Folders, please renew your PRO membership.